A hydrogen-electric flying taxi has successfully completed a record flight of 842 kilometers over California, USA, emitting only water as a direct byproduct. This marks the first flight powered by hydrogen fuel that is capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
The flight, which is more than three times the distance record set by the developer’s electric vehicle, demonstrates the potential of hydrogen to enable zero-emission regional travel, according to a statement from Joby Aviation, the company behind the flying taxi prototype. The flying taxi still had 10% of its hydrogen fuel remaining after the flight, indicating that it could fly even further in the future.
Joby Aviation’s hydrogen-electric flying taxi recently flew three times farther than the company’s battery-powered flying taxi. (Photo: Joby Aviation).
This is the first direct flight of a hydrogen-fueled aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities. Previous hydrogen-fueled flights used aircraft that required runways or smaller vehicles, such as the multi-rotor drone designs from Metavista. Those flights lasted between 10 minutes to 3 hours, in the case of the H2FLY design (H2FLY is a subsidiary of Joby Aviation). Metavista’s flying taxi has set a record flight time of 12 hours. It is unclear how far these aircraft have flown, but H2FLY states that one day their aircraft could travel up to 1,500 kilometers.
Hydrogen-Electric Flying Taxi
The Joby Aviation flying taxi is an enhanced electric aircraft featuring six rotors suitable for urban environments. The originally battery-powered vehicle completed 40,000 kilometers of testing through numerous flights at the company’s headquarters in Marina, California, and in New York City. Subsequently, engineers converted this battery-powered aircraft into a hydrogen-electric aircraft by adding a fuel tank capable of holding 40 kilograms of liquid hydrogen, as well as a hydrogen fuel cell system.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, water, and heat when combined with oxygen. The electricity then powers the airplane’s rotors, while the water is expelled as waste. The aircraft also carries a smaller amount of batteries to provide additional power during takeoff and landing.
JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, stated: “Imagine being able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, from Boston to Baltimore, or from Nashville to New Orleans without having to go to an airport and without emitting any pollutants other than water.”
The advantage of the hydrogen design is that it can travel much farther than battery-powered designs, which need recharging every 160 to 240 kilometers.
Joby Aviation plans to start selling its original battery-powered design in 2025. It will take more time to bring the hydrogen and electric flying taxi to market, but much of the design and testing work has been completed on the battery-powered aircraft for commercial purposes.
Recently, Joby Aviation became the first electric VTOL aircraft developer to complete the third phase of a five-phase certification process with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States. In this third phase, the FAA reviewed and approved Joby’s certification plans for the aircraft’s structural, mechanical, and electrical systems. The next phase will involve the FAA examining the entire aircraft and all its systems.
Joby Aviation plans to deploy the same infrastructure, landing pads, operational teams, and software for both types of vehicles, allowing them to be used simultaneously or to transition seamlessly from one type to another.
